Movie Review: Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978)
Synopsis: After being stranded on the island for 15 years, Gilligan finds a metal disc the Professor uses to fix their barometer just in time to predict a storm severe enough to cause a tsunami. They survive the storm by lashing their huts together as a boat and wind up at sea, where they are finally rescued. However, they find their return to society difficult, plus Gilligan is stalked by two Soviet spies seeking to retrieve their disc.
Who's in it? The movie stars Bob Denver, Russell Johnson, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Dawn Wells and Judith Baldwin.
Review: It had been decades since I last watched Rescue from Gilligan's Island, and I didn't remember a whole lot about the movie other than a few bits and pieces. So, when I came across the film this morning, I decided to take the time to watch it again. Overall, I would describe it as a film that was a good reunion movie but also far from perfect.
I thought the overall premise about them being rescued was a decent one, both with how it happened and the difficulties they had reintegrating into a world that had changed quite a bit since they arrived on the island, whether it was the kind of movie roles Ginger (Baldwin) was offered or the Howell's (Backus and Schafer) realizing their "friends" weren't really their friends.
I also appreciated some of the throwbacks scattered throughout. This included the movie's intro, and the subtle reminder Ginger sleeps in the nude along with physical comedy that Gilligan (Denver) is known for. In many ways, this film felt like an extended version of one of the show's episodes and I mean that in a good way. The lone exception, of course, was Baldwin rather than Tina Louise as Ginger, who did OK in the role but just wasn't the same.
There were, as I mentioned, flaws though. This starts with scenes that just seem to be dragged out well beyond necessary. The shark scene, for example, just kept going and going long after it was funny while their return to civilization probably could have been shortened by several minutes.
The individual stories were a mixed bag. The part about the Professor (Johnson) being a reluctant sex symbol was entertaining while Mary Ann's (Wells) wedding simply made no sense considering she never once mentioned her fiancé and there were even episodes that focused on her being single. The part about Skipper and Gilligan trying to get an insurance payment was a nice way to tie them together but did make me question why the insurance company wouldn't have given them the payout just for the good publicity.
I also wasn't a huge fan of the spy subplot, mostly because it seemed so unnecessary when there was already so much going on in this film and didn't do much to push the plot forward. It was one of those things that just added runtime to a movie that was about 15-20 minutes too long.
Final Opinion: It's about what I would expect from a made-for-TV movie based on an iconic television series. It has its ups and downs and was clearly filled for time but does hold up from an entertainment standpoint and has an ending that brings reasonable closure to the castaways (even before future movies expanded on that) so I'm glad I watched it again.
My Grade: B
___________________________________________________________________
Here are some reviews of other tv-show-related movies:
.png)
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment